The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-02-16
OUR FARMERS CLUBS.
What ou: Farmers are Doing and How
the Work of Organizing is
Progressing.
TRINITY CLUB.
Subject THE Orchard.
February 5th, 1887.

February 5th, 1887.
D. M. Payne. A we'll selected
orchard of choice fruit, embracing
the earliest and latest varieties, and
we'll attended is desirable append
age to farm, and adds value to it.
It is common for the seller to say
'there is a good orchard on the pre-
mises,' to induce a sale. There is
money, comfort and satisfaction in
such. Having such one you can
market the fruit from the tree for
half the year. The later varieties
can be kept tie balance of the year
for market and home consumption.
An unkept orchard is unsightly,
and the fruit from it is not SO whole
some. Fruit from starved, and
diseased trees ripens immaturely
and is not as nourishing as when
matured. The tendency of fruit on
decayed trees is to ripen in a with
cred or perished condition, before it
acquires that luscious, juicy stage so
essential to render it palatable.
Hence it has not the intrinsic value
that it would have from trees we'll
fed and kept. Just as decayed
limb on the human body will enfeeble
the whole system will a decaying
branch on a tree communicate it's
sickness to the fruit. Therefore to
grow good and wholesome fruit we
must keep strict vigilance over the
trees. In the first place we must
set them in soil sufficiently strong
to make vigorous, healthy growth,
that the fruit may fully develop.
This pays in a three fold sense. The
fruit is much better, the quantity
correspondingly increased and the
market value enhanced. The notion
of setting large area of poor land
In orchard is the worst kind Of econ
omy. One acre ofrich manured land is
worth ten of such poor land in every
view of the matter. Many nursery
men have received the abuseful
vituperations of an exasperated hus-
bandman just because he made
mistake in the locality of his orchard.
The fault was in the latter and not
in the tree dealer Another great
mistake common in this section is
tho failure of us to husband our
fruit. Thousands of it are allowed
to lay on the ground and rot, while
it is of as much value as many Of
the grain crops. We ought by all
means to save it in some form or
other. Apples right now will bring
81, so per bushel. This is more than
we can get for any Of the leading
grains raised in this section, and
requires less labor and attention
than the grain crop. The attention
required for fruit trees can most OF
it be done in the winter season when
the hands are not engaged on other
crops.
The sanitary effects of fruit may
be inferred from the position in
which man was first placed after
creation. He was put among fruit
trees and enjoined to let one kind
alone. Had he obeyed the accepted
opinion is, he would have lived
always. Through the instigation of
the devil he disobeyed and the
result is thorns, thistles, crab apples
&c. This requires the toll and sweat of
man to subdue, a just retribution, and
IN proportion as we fail to perform
these requirements do we suffer.
therefore the devil is to blame for
the bad fruit, and when a basket Of
1t Is set before us we may say "this
is the work of his majesty
Such thoughts as these ought to
constraln us to prune, manure and
dlg about our fruit trees, that we
may have better fruit than that
produced through satanic influence.
Were it not for our neglect in this
matter, caused by the wiles of the
old dragon at the beginning, we
would have waiter filled with good,
nice, well developed fruit here to-day
tor us to sample, that would give us
clear heads and honest hearts to
consider this subject sensibly, and do